1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic record keeping. More specifically, the present invention is related to gathering and storing input data and automatically generating journal entries according to a rules-based mechanism.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Many people desire to keep some sort of formal account of their personal or professional doings. Unfortunately, life is often so busy that most either do not wish to take the time to record events that happen in their life or simply do not remember to do so until after a good recollection of those events has already passed. Therefore, individuals find it difficult to maintain the level of journaling they desire for their personal and professional lives. Even those who do keep a diary or journal on a regular basis often wish that their record was more complete.
In addition, corporate entities must often spend valuable resources trying to record and maintain histories of all of their business events. The rise of pervasive computing and wireless electronic communication has increased the amount of information available electronically to those people making extensive use of these technologies. While such information seems to be potentially harmful if used inappropriately, it may also be used to significantly benefit a person who utilizes these resources wisely.
Information about a person, such as location, time, proximity of associates, and events, has always been the crux of information recorded in a journal or diary. Current event archiving systems are error-prone and often of inconsistent format. With all of this information now potentially available to a single computer system, the journal entry process can be extended to become more automated.
The prior art has failed to provide for a fully automated rules-based journal mechanism.
A system for journal entry generation continuously receives information from a person or group of people and compares that information through a rules-based mechanism. If the mechanism determines that an entry should be generated, it passes the data obtained by the system along with the appropriate template to a journal entry generator. The generator then uses the information to populate the template as appropriate to create the journal entry. The entry is placed in the person""s electronic journal, and, if desired, some form of notification can be sent to the person of the entry""s creation.
In an alternative embodiment, memory cues can be set up in advance to assist a user in entering or acknowledgment of entries to a journal at a predefined later time.